SaintAngerBH wrote:Why did Tampa trade Drouin? Are they still butt-hurt over him not reporting to the minors?

Probably because they have other players to sign to big raises, and Drouin likely still had lingering resentment over being bodyslammed and force-choked by Yzerman. Why deal with a protracted contract battle if Drouin lets that resentment bleed over? Fresh start for Drouin, less headache for Yzerman.

SaintAngerBH wrote:Why did Tampa trade Drouin? Are they still butt-hurt over him not reporting to the minors?

Probably because they have other players to sign to big raises, and Drouin likely still had lingering resentment over being bodyslammed and force-choked by Yzerman. Why deal with a protracted contract battle if Drouin lets that resentment bleed over? Fresh start for Drouin, less headache for Yzerman.

Yeah, but he went to MTL pretty cheaply... Sergachev isn't exactly lighting up the OHL.

Some of these expansion draft tactics hockey writers are throwing around don't make sense to me. No matter what, a team is going to lose a roster player to Vegas. But some writers are making it seem like GMs need to trade away anyone who isn't protected ahead of the expansion draft. First off, that only works if you have a bunch of teams with inferior players being protected. Second, the return needs to be more than a 4th or 5th round pick for the idea to make sense.

If you do nothing and just let Vegas take a guy, you lose one roster player. If you run around to dump an exposed guy ahead of the expansion draft, you've lost two roster players but have gained back a crappy draft pick. Makes no *fargin'* sense.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

I've come to the same conclusion. Maybe a few GMs can manage a deal with or via Vegas, but it does seem like, especially for Dallas, to just lose one player and then move on. For Dallas they have cap space and can hit up the salary strapped teams.

I can see the logic if a team has one player that's valuable that they can't protect - might as well move them for an asset and leave lesser players exposed. But if you have 4 or 5 valuable players that you can't protect, it doesn't make sense to give one away for basically nothing and then also lose a second to the expansion draft.

There were all of two trades today. A full year of hype and panic, and it was nothing.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.

We'll see if there are a bunch of trades with Vegas. I don't expect much. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about teams wanting to make trades to dictate who Vegas takes, but why would Vegas fill their roster with a bunch of *poo poo* all in exchange for a pile of fifth round picks?

But the fizzle of the trade buzz isn't a big surprise. The expansion draft is like losing a third tier player to free agency or retirement. It happens to most teams every year, so they are used to having to fill a depth roster spot. It was never a big deal and not at all difficult to plan around.

I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at Western Warehouse.